The heart is the organ of desire (the heart swells, weakens, etc. like the sexual organs), as it is held, enchanted, within the domain of the Image-repertoire. What will the world, what will the other do with my desire? That is the anxiety in which are gathered all the heart's movements, all the heart's 'problems.'

-Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, p. 52.

The art of Lyndie Dourthe is described as a 'workshop' of 'tiny oddities', and the minute I stumbled upon her website, I was charmed by the bizarrely beautiful work. The heart artwork reminded me of Barthes's own representation of the heart in A Lover's Discourse.

Wouldn't it be fascinating to map out the anatomy of desire through oddities and the body? Her artwork mingles flowers, death and bodily organs, suggesting a link between all three. In my mind, the link is desire, almost like we need physical proof of its existence through tokens, curiosities and the body's vulnerability and permeability. To see more of Lyndie's work, visit her blog.

I have two more lovely things to share. One of my (very, very) short stories has won a short fiction competition and will be available in print early next year. You can read it online here. I really enjoyed the difficult task of condensing ideas into one hundred words. It's often harder than having the luxury of a longer word count to play with.

The second piece of news is that I will soon be joining the writing team for The Australian Ballet's blog, Behind Ballet. I hope you'll visit me there every once in a while.